HIGH FIVE: Eli Manning celebrates one of his career-high five touchdown passes in the Giants’ 42-7 rout of the Eagles yesterday at MetLife Stadium. Photo: Anthony J. Causi

Less than an hour after torching the rival Eagles for a career-high five touchdowns in a 42-7 win, Giants quarterback Eli Manning was standing in front of a throng of reporters trying to answer the same question coach Tom Coughlin would pose later: What went wrong this year?

His answer was simple, if not easy to swallow.

“We just didn’t play well. I don’t think it’s a lack of hunger or focus, it’s just that we got outperformed,’’ said Manning, whose Giants were eliminated from playoff contention by other results yesterday after previous devastating losses to the Falcons and Ravens. “We got beaten and we got outplayed, and sometimes that happens.

“You hate for it to happen, and sometimes you don’t want to say it because it can mess up your confidence and [make you] think you’re not any good and you don’t want to accept that at the time. But that’s just what happened. We got outplayed in Atlanta and in Baltimore and didn’t give ourselves a chance to win either game.’’

After struggling mightily in those defeats — 27-of-53 for 311 yards, one TD and two interceptions combined in leading Big Blue to just 14 points total — Manning bounced back yesterday.

He was 13-of-21 for 208 yards, those five touchdowns (two to Rueben Randle and one apiece to David Wilson, Victor Cruz and Henry Hynoski), no interceptions and a 134.5 rating. Hall of Famer Y.A. Tittle is the only Giant to throw more than five scores in a game. But that was no consolation.

“It hurts,” Manning said. “Each year, you want to make the playoffs to give yourself an opportunity to win a championship. We had the ability to make the playoffs, and we’re disappointed that we didn’t play up to our ability each week.’’

Against an Eagles team that had beaten the Giants in eight of their past nine meetings, Manning threw three first-quarter TDs to stake Big Blue to a 21-0 lead. That only underscored how badly they had missed that kind of play the prior two weeks.

“There’s no enjoyment in not going to the playoffs, but we knew we had a chance,’’ Manning said. “We had better opportunities earlier on in the season that we didn’t take advantage of.

“We just didn’t win some of those close ones. We didn’t win some of the tight ones. At the end versus Philly and in Washington, it would’ve been helpful. But even with that … we knew what we had to do to get into the playoffs and we didn’t play well enough under those circumstances — at Baltimore, in Atlanta — to get a win in both of those spots that ultimately knocked us out of the playoffs.’’